Idaho House passes Otter’s state-run health exchange, 41-29

The Idaho House delivered Gov. Butch Otter the most significant legislative victory of his six years in office Wednesday, passing his bill establishing a state-run health insurance exchange.

The 41-29 vote on House Bill 248 came after a two-year effort, seven hours of debate and over fierce objections from the GOP’s tea party and pro-life wings. Forty-six lawmakers spoke.

The bill now moves to the Senate, where another long debate may follow. But after a 23-12 vote on the Senate version, passage is likely.

Critical to Otter’s win was December’s election of House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, which changed the balance of power in the House.

Bedke oversaw the debate with a firm, respectful hand. His manner reflected his view that despite revulsion for President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, a state-operated plan is superior to a federal exchange because it will save Idaho jobs, be less expensive to run and more responsive to consumers.

Early last year, Otter backed away from his plan because of opposition from then-Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale. On Wednesday, Denney debated against HB 248 and for an effort to sidetrack the bill for an anti-abortion amendment.

Denney’s top ally, Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, gave an impassioned 12-minute speech that prompted applause from exchange foes in the gallery. Moyle said a state exchange is “hogwash” and a fiction; Idahoans running it would be reduced to “sock puppets” following federal orders.

“Don’t get wrapped around all those lobbyists that are taking you to dinner. Don’t get wrapped around all those things you see on your computer. Just step back,” Moyle said, pounding his chest with a fist. “How’s it feel in here? Right there. Because if you have any doubt, you better vote no.”

The floor sponsor, Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Fred Wood, R-Burley, was on his feet for about two hours, debating and fielding dozens of questions, chiefly from opponents.

“We don’t have the choice to not have an exchange,” Wood said over and again in various ways, reminding the House that the feds will step in if Idaho takes a pass. “This is a big picture issue.”

Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, said he was proud to back the bill as “an unambiguous assertion of state sovereignty.”

The abortion gambit provided the sharpest threat. Moyle and Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise, said the governor’s office rejected an abortion amendment during a week-long pause Bedke ordered to allow revisions of the Senate-passed Senate Bill 1042.

The House’s two physicians — Chairman Wood and House Minority Leader John Rusche — said the drugs are not prescribed to end pregnancy. “There is no evidence that Plan B or Ella are abortifacients,” said Rusche, D-Lewiston. “They are contraceptives.”

Wood reminded the House that the 2012 Legislature passed a law invoking an opt-out provision in Obamacare that prohibits an Idaho exchange from offering abortion coverage.

Rep. Rick Youngblood, R-Nampa, one of the key freshman backing HB 248, said the amendment was unnecessary and resisted any suggestion he was weak on abortion. “I am offended by this amendment,” he said. “I am a pro-life Republican.”

Otter and his aides, particularly Chief of Staff David Hensley, combined patience, persistence and public and private pressure. They enlisted a broad coalition of business interests, led by insurers and health care providers, who paid for all those dinners Moyle mentioned.

Other than Otter, none was more pivotal than Bedke, who bared his neck knowing he had a deeply divided caucus. Among the 57 Republicans, 28 voted for the bill, 29 voted no. All 13 Democrats voted aye.

Had Otter lost this fight, it would have emboldened GOP Congressman Raul Labrador’s talk of a primary challenge in 2014. Labrador took the rare step of lobbying state lawmakers against the exchange.

As a member of the Legislature in 2009, Labrador helped defeat the governor’s press to boost transportation taxes. This time, with plenty of help, Otter carried the day, significantly strengthening his prospects for re-election.

Dan Popkey came to Idaho in 1984 to work as a police reporter. Since 1987, he has covered politics and has reported on 25 sessions of the Legislature.
Dan has a bachelor's in political science from Santa Clara University and a master's in journalism from Columbia University. He was a Congressional Fellow of the American Political Science Association and a Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. A former page in the U.S. House of Representatives, he graduated Capitol Page High School in 1976.
In 2007, he led the Statesman’s coverage of the Sen. Larry Craig sex scandal, which was one of three Pulitzer Prize finalists in breaking news. In 2003, he won the Ted M. Natt First Amendment award from the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association for coverage of University Place, the University of Idaho’s troubled real estate development in Boise. Dan helped start the community reading project "Big Read." He has two children in college and lives on the Boise Bench with an old gray cat.